It is commonly known to provide POP displays for displaying product advertisements or other information on counters or other flat surfaces in, for example, convenience stores, liquor stores, bars or other stores in which an advertised product is likely to be purchased or in which the displayed information is likely to be helpful to customers. Typically, POP displays are made of transparent plastic or other lightweight material which is easy to mold and manufacture. POP displays commonly include an upright vertical portion having two adjacent transparent plates capable of holding one or more large printed advertisements therebetween and a base portion for supporting the vertical portion above a flat surface. Typically, the base portion includes two legs which extend diagonally outward from the vertical upright portion and which come into contact with the flat surface. Sometimes, smaller printed advertisements are held and displayed by each of the legs or, alternatively, advertising is silkscreened, etched or otherwise printed onto a surface of each of the legs and is viewable therethrough. In this manner, POP displays may display up to four different advertisements; two held by the upright vertical portion and one held by or etched onto each of the two legs of the base portion.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a well known POP display 10 is illustrated. The POP display 10 is made of a single piece of plastic having vertical transparent plates 12 and 14 and a triangular shaped base portion 16 which includes diagonal leg pieces 18 and 20 and a bottom support piece 22. A printed advertisement 24 (shown in phantom relief) is placed between the plates 12 and 14 such that both sides of the advertisement 24 are viewable through the transparent plates 12 and 14. The POP display 10 is considered inadequate, however, because the leg pieces 18 and 20 are not capable of holding and displaying printed advertisements. Although advertising may be silkscreened, etched or otherwise engraved on a surface of each of the leg pieces 18 and 20, this is a relatively expensive and time-consuming process.
FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate another known POP display 30. The POP display 30 is made of three separate pieces which are all, preferably, formed of plastic or other transparent material. The first piece includes a vertical plate 32 connected to a leg 36 and a lip 37 which extends out from the vertical plate 32 at a point just above the leg 36. Likewise, the second piece includes a vertical plate 34 connected to a leg 38 and a lip (not shown in the Figures) which extends out from the vertical plate 34. The third piece comprises a base 40 having a space 41 therein. As indicated in FIG. 2, the POP display 30 is assembled by placing the vertical plates 32 and 34 adjacent to one another, inserting the upper edges of the plates 32 and 34 into the hole 41 of the base 40 and slipping the base 40 down over the vertical plates 32 and 34 until the base 40 slides over the lip 37 and the lip connected to the vertical plate 34. In this manner, the base 40 comes into contact with the upper surfaces of the leg pieces 36 and 38 and holds the vertical plates 32 and 34 together, as shown in FIG. 3.
When assembled, the POP display 30 is capable of holding one or more large printed advertisements 42 (shown in phantom relief) between the vertical plates 32 and 34 and of holding smaller printed advertisements 44 and 46 (shown in phantom relief) between the leg pieces 36 and 38 and the base portion 40. Although the POP display 30 is capable of holding and displaying three or more separate printed advertisements, this POP display is considered inadequate because it requires tedious and time-consuming manual labor to assemble and because it requires multiple molds to form the separate pieces thereof.
It is desirable, therefore, to develop an advertising or POP display which is capable of displaying three or more printed advertisements of at least two separate sizes, wherein one of the printed advertisements is oriented vertically with respect to a flat surface and two of the printed advertisements are oriented diagonally with respect to the flat surface. Furthermore, it is desirable to develop such a POP display which can be formed in a single mold and which requires minimal manual labor for assembly thereof.